The fishing vessels were sighted on Thursday morning, around 37 nautical miles off Palghar

mumbaiUpdated: Aug 31, 2017 18:29 IST

Ram Parmar

Hindustan Times

An aerial shot of the two boats spotted by the Coast Guard officials on Thursday morning.(HT Photo)

The Coast Guard on Thursday morning rescued 20 fishermen who went missing after one of the three boats from Nawabandar, in Gujrat’s Junagadh district capsized owing to bad weather near Satpati in Palghar on Wednesday.

The three boats that had left from Junagadh, were called Ram Prasad, Prem Sai and Sai Narayan. All boats had one captain and 9 crew members on board each. All three boats were owned by Ramabhai Samat Solanki, 50. Owing to choppy waters, one of the boats, Ram Prasad, capsized, and the 10 crew members were rescued by Prem Sai.

However, after the rescue, Prem Sai, which then had 20 crew members on board, went missing, which led the Coast Guard to launch the search and rescue operation.

According to an official of the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), Mumbai, on Wednesday afternoon, a Dornier aircraft belonging to the Coast Guard first conducted an aerial search of the spot, located 40 nautical miles off Palghar. However, the boat was not traceable and the owner was also unable to contact his crew members,said the official.

“We took help from the Coast Guard ship, Samudra Prahari, which was on patrol, and diverted the vessel to look for the boat,” said the official. The Dornier aircraft continued the aerial search for the two fishing vessels - Prem Sai and Sai Narayana - belonging to Solanki. “On Thursday morning, around 9.25am, we sighted the two fishing vessels, 37 nautical miles off Palghar, near Tarapur coast,” said the MRCC official.